At 70, you're old enough that a new life insurance policy costs real money, and old enough that "just get a big policy" stops being good advice. The better question is narrower: what will your family actually be short, after VA burial benefits and whatever savings you already have are counted, and how much coverage closes that specific gap.
What Actually Drives the Number?
The amount of life insurance a 70-year-old veteran needs isn't a flat figure like $10,000 or $25,000. It's the result of one subtraction:
Expected funeral and burial cost − VA burial benefits − available savings = coverage gap.
Everything else — whether you buy term, whole life, or a final expense policy — is about how you fill that gap, not how big it is. Skipping the subtraction is how people end up buying far more coverage than they need, which is exactly the strategy behind a lot of "veteran life insurance" TV ads.
How Much Will VA Actually Pay Toward the Funeral?
This is the part most people get wrong, because they assume VA burial benefits cover most of the cost. For deaths on or after October 1, 2025, the VA burial allowance pays:
| If the death was... | Burial allowance | Plot allowance |
|---|---|---|
| Service-connected | Up to $2,000 | Reimbursed separately if applicable |
| Non-service-connected | $1,002 | $1,002 |
| Veteran hospitalized by VA at time of death | $1,002 | $1,002 |
VA also pays up to $441 toward a headstone or marker if one isn't already provided by the government, and may reimburse transportation costs if the veteran died while hospitalized by VA or in a VA-contracted nursing home. None of these are automatic — a survivor or the funeral home has to file for them, usually with VA Form 21P-530EZ.
For most non-service-connected deaths, that's roughly $2,000 total between burial and plot allowance — not the whole funeral bill, a partial reimbursement toward it. If the veteran is buried in a VA national cemetery instead of a private one, the plot itself carries no charge, which changes the math (see the VA plot allowance rules for how that interacts with the payment).
What Do You Already Have Covered?
Before shopping for a new policy, subtract what's already in place:
- Military group life insurance. SGLI ends shortly after separation, and VGLI premiums climb sharply with age — many veterans let it lapse decades before 70. If you're not sure whether yours is still active, that's step one, not buying something new on top of it.
- Existing burial or final expense insurance. If you bought a small policy years ago, check the current death benefit against today's costs — inflation may have shrunk what it actually covers.
- Liquid savings your family could access quickly. A funeral home typically wants payment before or shortly after the service, so savings that are tied up (a house, a retirement account with withdrawal penalties) don't count the same way as cash.
Doing the Gap Math: A Worked Example
Say a veteran's family gets quotes from local funeral homes for the kind of service they want — burial or cremation, with or without a viewing — and settles on a realistic number for their area. Call that figure F.
- Start with F.
- Subtract the VA burial allowance the veteran qualifies for ($2,000 if service-connected, $1,002 if not).
- Subtract the plot allowance ($1,002) if a VA national cemetery isn't being used.
- Subtract whatever cash the family could put toward it without financial strain.
What's left is the number to insure against — not F itself. Funeral costs vary enormously by region, cremation versus burial, and what the family wants, so plug in your own local quotes rather than a national average. If you want a sense of what other families are paying, what a veteran's funeral actually costs breaks the categories down.
What Kind of Policy Fits a 70-Year-Old Veteran?
At this age, most people aren't shopping for a 20-year term policy — the math on premiums stops making sense. The realistic options are usually final expense (burial) insurance or a small whole life policy, both built for a modest, fixed death benefit rather than income replacement. Burial insurance for veterans works the same way whether or not you served — VA burial benefits and private life insurance are separate systems that don't reduce each other, so a policy doesn't disqualify you from VA payments or vice versa.
A policy sized to the actual gap — often a few thousand to a low five-figure amount rather than $25,000 or $50,000 — usually costs less per month and is easier to qualify for at 70, including with health conditions that would disqualify you from larger term coverage.
What to Do About It
- Confirm whether the veteran's death would likely be rated service-connected or not — that changes the VA allowance amount by roughly half.
- Get 2-3 real funeral home quotes for the service type the family actually wants, not a national average.
- Check whether VGLI, SGLI, or an old burial policy is still active, and what it would actually pay today.
- Subtract VA benefits and available savings from the funeral estimate to get your real gap.
- Shop final expense or small whole life quotes sized to that gap, not to a round number an ad suggested.
None of this requires an attorney or financial advisor to do the arithmetic — it's addition and subtraction. Where it gets complicated is application underwriting and VA claims paperwork, and that's worth asking specific questions about before you sign anything.